Diamond In The Rough is a Steven Universe fanfic
written by 0TheCluster0, and is a prequel to the Alternate Universe Fic Faded Blue.
The age old story. Boy meets girl, girl is an alien queen, alien queen abandons Empire to have a half-human child. Or: five glimpses into the relationship of Greg Universe and Blue Diamond.
This fanfic provides examples of:
- Abduction Is Love: About ten minutes after meeting him, Blue Diamond decides to abduct Greg and take him to the Zoo. Greg thinks she just intended a quick bit of sightseeing from space, and since she decides to stay on Earth, doesn't realize what she intended until years later.
- Commonality Connection: Sort of - Blue Diamond apparently started writing poetry as a hobby after she met Greg.
- Conveniently an Orphan: Greg's parents apparently died in a car crash when he was 17. Talking about them is his bonding point with Blue Diamond, instead of Rose's death.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Blue Diamond may be an (somewhat soft) Evil Overlord, but it's clear in canon that she does care for the other Diamonds, and in Diamond in the Rough it's equally clear that she does care for – and later on, love – Greg.
- Heel–Face Door-Slam: While her time on Earth had started to make her more emphatic and caring, Blue Diamond was still an Evil Overlord - and in the end, her Death by Childbirth removed any chance of a Heel–Face Turn for good.
- Heel Realization:
- Meeting Greg proves the turning point for Blue Diamond, and causes her to decide to save Earth from the Cluster.
- Blue is also somewhat horrified by the realization that she might have once simply captured Greg and sent him to the Zoo without getting to know him. However, Greg forgives her, to her surprise.
- Love Redeems: Played with – it's pretty clear here that Blue's better half is brought out by Greg. In the end, however, her last moments with Pearl before giving birth indicate "redeems" may be a bit of a strong word.
- Mayfly–December Romance: Greg and Blue Diamond. And like in canon, the near immortal being dies in childbirth.
- Practice Kiss: One of the various human things Greg took to teaching Blue Diamond just so happened to be kissing. He had an especially good time teaching that to her.
- The Rock Star: Set in an alternate universe where Greg made it in his music career, so much so that his tour takes him to Korea, which is where he meets Blue Diamond and Blue Pearl.
- Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: When Greg suggests Blue Diamond shrink down so she go with him to a Korean town, she says that shrinking down would be seen as unbecoming of her status. When Greg starts to leave without her, she decides that as a Diamond, everything she does is automatically becoming, so she is able to shrink without worry.
- Uptown Girl: Greg is a human rock star - while he's not exactly doing badly, Blue Diamond is one of the co-leaders of an intergalactic empire and seen as a perfect, all powerful deity among her subjects.
